Advice on ?Querkus velutina

[maven]

We've got 17 acres of woodland in Derbyshire. The newest part is a section I call Plantation Hill, where the previous owners seem to have planted a grid of very varied species on an acre or two going up the hill. The saplings were about 6-8 foot tall and approximately 5 years old when we arrived 6 years ago, and I'd guess there is spacing of about 10 foot between them (with a few self-seeded birches and sycamore infilling). The trees are about 15 foot tall, and wider now. As you can imagine, it is now quite crowded! I can see willow and hazel and various pines, some dead ash saplings (we've been affected quite badly by dieback).

 

Near the path, there is one tree I think is Quercus velutina. However, today I noticed that the top half of the tree has gone brown, whilst the bottom half is still green. Looking more closely, there seems to be missing bark around sections of the upper trunk. I'm just wanting to check out what is going on, what we should do to try to help this tree, and whether there is any risk to other trees in that area (and if so, how we can protect them). We have some lovely old English oak nearby. We are amateurs, but capable of basic saw and chainsaw work.

[Stere]

Grey squirrel  damage maybe combined with drought.

[Paul in the woods]

Yep, grey squirrel damage. Looks like it was done last year as the bark has started to heal although in my experience they return year after year so there could also be fresh damage. The dead tops may not be down to drought at all, just damage. Tends to happen as the young trees grow and the canopy closes.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Paul in the woods

[headgroundsman]

 if you do not have the time or are unwilling to do it yourself you may beable to get some safe shots with air rifles willing to help with grey squirrel control. Without this you can expect100% of the oaks to be damaged like this.

 

[maven]

Thanks for all the advice. It does look like something has ring-barked it, and a squirrel is a likely culprit.

 

3 hours ago, headgroundsman said:

 if you do not have the time or are unwilling to do it yourself you may beable to get some safe shots with air rifles willing to help with grey squirrel control. Without this you can expect100% of the oaks to be damaged like this.

 

I know opinions are divided, but we aren't really very keen to have anyone with guns on the site. The foxes, badgers and our cats seem to keep the population under control enough. And we have oaks from tiny saplings through to 100+ year old giants without any similar damage.

[headgroundsman]

3 minutes ago, maven said:

Thanks for all the advice. It does look like something has ring-barked it, and a squirrel is a likely culprit.

 

I know opinions are divided, but we aren't really very keen to have anyone with guns on the site. The foxes, badgers and our cats seem to keep the population under control enough. And we have oaks from tiny saplings through to 100+ year old giants without any similar damage.

Keep a very close eye on things and consider live traps for squirrels if you do not want any guns. I have a woodland that is part of the National forest and they have shown me some woods that will have no usable oak trees left due to inadequate squirrel control at the stage your woodland is now at

[Paul in the woods]

12 hours ago, maven said:

I know opinions are divided, but we aren't really very keen to have anyone with guns on the site. The foxes, badgers and our cats seem to keep the population under control enough. And we have oaks from tiny saplings through to 100+ year old giants without any similar damage.

I can understand not wanting anyone shooting on your land. I shoot and trap mine and I've found if you can get the numbers down you get much less tree damage. I doubt foxes, badgers or cats will take a healthy squirrel. If you live trap grey squirrels you still need to cull them.

 

With regard to the trees. Mature oaks have established when there were no or less squirrels about. The problem these days is that there's a very high density of squirrels and in many places virtually all young oaks will be severely damaged. In years to come I can see far less healthy mature oak trees about. As said, squirrels seem to like the trees when the canopy closes, in my woodland the trees are about 25 years old. I had hoped the squirrels would only damage the same trees and for a few years that did seem to be the case but sadly this year they've gone for some not the untouched trees.

 

It's also not just oaks, they damage beach and have wiped out the few hornbeams I had growing.

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Paul in the woods said:

I can understand not wanting anyone shooting on your land. I shoot and trap mine and I've found if you can get the numbers down you get much less tree damage. I doubt foxes, badgers or cats will take a healthy squirrel. If you live trap grey squirrels you still need to cull them.

From research Judith Rowe din in the 70s it is not numbers of squirrel per se but young males displaced by males with territories that cause the damage. Also damage is related to phloem width, so if the tree puts on a spurt of growth, say after a thinning has removed a bit of competition, then they are attracted to that tree.

 

Often the damage will start from a "stance", either the ground or a branch, so formative pruning  may reduce the chance of damage to the valuable part of the stem.

 

When I started the damage was virtually only on beech and sycamore but now the grey squirrels are more catholic in their species.

1 hour ago, Paul in the woods said:

 

With regard to the trees. Mature oaks have established when there were no or less squirrels about. The problem these days is that there's a very high density of squirrels and in many places virtually all young oaks will be severely damaged. In years to come I can see far less healthy mature oak trees about. .

Yes I do not expect the younger foresters will appreciate the form and size of beech trees we used to sell into the furniture industry any more than they could appreciate the huge field grown billowing elms of my youth.

 

As a nation we have not appreciated the damage to timber nor the effect on wildlife (especially dormice) that grey squirrels have done.

 

It is also a reflection on how badly incompetent the workforce was in the application of a useful control, warfarin, whose use had to be banned because of universally poor practice.

[Rich Rule]

Shoot them or put up with the damage.

 

Live trapping will still need them to be killed.

[openspaceman]

29 minutes ago, Rich Rule said:

Shoot them or put up with the damage.

I doubt shooting will be much of a control, can get expensive too.

29 minutes ago, Rich Rule said:

 

Live trapping will still need them to be killed.

Yes and getting a trapped rodent, or two, out of a live trap and killing it humanely can be problematic. I never did grasp how to break a squirrel's neck as it poked out of the trap cleanly.

 

So I favoured tunnel traps but some of the new tree attached re settable ones look useful.

Edited September 4, 2022 by openspaceman